You can allready buy CPUs with 8 cores or 72CPU's in one system. Depends on how much you want to spend for your system
(There's no limit, if you've got the money...)

But sadly many programs and/or parts in gentoo can only use one cpu/core and parallel build isn't available always.
(Ever tried to emerge --metadata on a quod-cpu system? it's damn slow!)_________________Black Holes are created when God divides by zero!

Once you get to a certain point, ultra high-end hardware doesn't really make much of a difference unless the software you use is specifically designed for it. Save your money and just buy a consumer high-end system._________________http://thechuckster.homelinux.com/

I'll wait for a real quadcore thanks, that one's just two dual cores in a single CPU:

Toms Hardware wrote:

Since the CPU combines two Conroe dual-core chips, the chip will carry 2 x 4 MB L2 cache; Kentsfield will be a Conroe "drop-in" chip and work with the 965 and 975 series chipsets on today's Core 2 Duo motherboards.

Once you get to a certain point, ultra high-end hardware doesn't really make much of a difference unless the software you use is specifically designed for it. Save your money and just buy a consumer high-end system.

You do run Gentoo, right?_________________
Misanthropy 2.0 - enough hate to go around

Once you get to a certain point, ultra high-end hardware doesn't really make much of a difference unless the software you use is specifically designed for it. Save your money and just buy a consumer high-end system.

You do run Gentoo, right?

Just a question, whats that got to do with anything?_________________There is, a not-born, a not-become, a not-made, a not-compounded. If that unborn, not-become, not-made, not-compounded were not, there would be no escape from this here that is born, become, made and compounded. - Gautama Siddharta

Once you get to a certain point, ultra high-end hardware doesn't really make much of a difference unless the software you use is specifically designed for it. Save your money and just buy a consumer high-end system.

You do run Gentoo, right?

Just a question, whats that got to do with anything?

Well, a compile intensive distro like Gentoo can always use as many processors as you throw at it IMO. Not to the mention that most people here tend to stay fairly close to cutting edge, hence are frequently rebuilding installed applications
It just seemed disingenuous to suggest that someone running Gentoo couldn't find something to do with "ultra high-end hardware" and that it doesn't make much of a difference etc._________________
Misanthropy 2.0 - enough hate to go around

Well, a compile intensive distro like Gentoo can always use as many processors as you throw at it IMO. Not to the mention that most people here tend to stay fairly close to cutting edge, hence are frequently rebuilding installed applications
It just seemed disingenuous to suggest that someone running Gentoo couldn't find something to do with "ultra high-end hardware" and that it doesn't make much of a difference etc.

Then why even care about quad core?

Sun's Niagra is out now, and at 32 core, with niagra 2 taking that to 64 core next year.

Or beowolf a rack full of dual core/dual proc servers.

Or go the way most supercomputers do now adays and just extent the hypertransport between the cpus and have a few thousand of them.

Like he said, there are limits to what is a reasonable amount of money to spend to get a given increase. There is a limit to the number of useful instances of gcc while compiling._________________My Public Key

Sun's Niagra is out now, and at 32 core, with niagra 2 taking that to 64 core next year.

Or beowolf a rack full of dual core/dual proc servers.

Or go the way most supercomputers do now adays and just extent the hypertransport between the cpus and have a few thousand of them.

Like he said, there are limits to what is a reasonable amount of money to spend to get a given increase. There is a limit to the number of useful instances of gcc while compiling.

Certainly, my point is that quadcore & dualcore are consumer parts; not in the price range of 32 core Sun h/w -- the post I was responding to seemed to imply that they're uneccesary, make no difference, etc etc.

That is NOT the case._________________
Misanthropy 2.0 - enough hate to go around

Certainly, my point is that quadcore & dualcore are consumer parts; not in the price range of 32 core Sun h/w -- the post I was responding to seemed to imply that they're uneccesary, make no difference, etc etc.

That is NOT the case.

I disagree, the post seems to me to be saying that there is no point a) Spending money on non-consumer parts and/or b) spending vast amounts of money just to improve compile times.

At a certain point, they do make no difference, there is a limit to the number of parts make can split a compile up into, that is probably a lot lower than you may imagine in most cases.

I would say, use you computer to do stuff, and not worry too much about the "building the stuff that lets you do stuff" part. If your gentoo compiliation times are your only incentive for upgrading, well, whats the point?_________________My Public Key

I look forward to the day when we can compile every major package in under a minute.

i suppose to compile on a cluster farm using distcc you could compile X, ooffice, kde, gnome and other big projects in a very short amount a time, you could maybe even buy 10 p2 and it would be faster than a dual core amd, but don;t quote me on that.

I would be interested in statistics showing the fastest compiling time for the big project mentioned above